Teenagers who talk on the phone a lot and hold their cell phones up to their right ears score worse on one type of memory test. That's the finding of a new study. That memory damage might be one side-effect of the radiation that phones use to keep us connected while we're on the go.

    Nearly 700 Swiss teens took part in a test of figural memory. This type helps us recall abstract symbols and shapes, explains Milena Foerster. She's an epidemiologist(流行病学家). She worked on the study as part of a team while Foerster was at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute in Basel, Switzerland. Teens participated memory tests twjce, one year apart. Each time, they had one minute to memorize 13 pairs of abstract shapes. Then they were shown one item from each pair and asked to match it with one of five choices.

    The study volunteers also took a test of verbal memory. That's the ability to remember words. The two memory tests are parts of an intelligence test.

    The researchers also surveyed the teens on how they use mobile phones. And they got call records from phone companies. The researchers used those records to estimate how long the teens were using their phones. This allowed the researchers to calculate how big a radiation exposure each person could have gotten while talking.

    All cell phones give off energy in the form of radio frequency electromagnetic fields, or RF-EMFs. Radio and TV broadcasts also use this type of energy. So do microwave ovens and some other gadgets(配件).

    "For a phone, that energy carries information, in the form of calls or texts between phones and cell phone towers. That radiation also can travel into people's bodies as they use their phones. And some of its energy can be absorbed by the body. So far, scientists have not shown that radiation from phones causes harm," says the Federal

    Communications Commission. Research is ongoing, this agency notes.

    In its early history, Chicago had floods frequently, especially in the spring, making the streets so muddy that people, horses, and carts got stuck. An old joke that was popular at the time went something like this: A man is stuck up to his waist in a muddy Chicago street. Asked if he needs help, he replies, "No, thanks. I've got a good horse under me."

    The city planner decided to build an underground drainage （排水） system, but there simply wasn't enough difference between the height of the ground level and the water level. The only two options were to lower the Chicago River or raise the city.

    An engineer named Ellis Chesbrough convinced the city that it had no choice but to build the pipes above ground and then cover them with dirt. This raised the level of the city's streets by as much as 12feet.

    This of course created a new problem: dirt practically buried the first floors of every building in Chicago. Building owners were faced with a choice: either change the first floors of their buildings into basements, and the second stories into main floors, or hoist the entire buildings to meet the new street level. Small wood-frame buildings could be lifted fairly easily. But what about large, heavy structures like Tremont Hotel, which was a six-story brick building?

    That's where George Pullman came in. He had developed some house-moving skills successfully. To lift a big structure like the Tremont Hotel, Pullman would place thousands of jackscrews (螺旋千斤顶) beneath the building's foundation. One man was assigned to operate each section of roughly 10jackscrews.At Pullman's signal each man tured his jackscrew the same amount at the same time, thereby raising the building slowly and evenly. Astonishingly, the Tremont Hotel stay open during the entire operation, and many of its guests didn't even notice anything was happening.

    Some people like to say that every problem has a solution. But in Chicago's early history, every engineering solution seemed to create a new problem. Now that Chicago's waste water was draining efficiently into the Chicago River, the city's next step was to clean the polluted river.

    I took a journey to New York, US several months ago. It was the first time I had been abroad. It was also the first time I had taken a trip by myself. I had great enthusiasm and high hopes, and I wasn't let down.

    It's hard to describe how I felt when I arrived at the airport in New York. Looking at people of different races and nationalities passing by and hearing different languages all around me, I couldn't say anything for a long time. I had never understood the cultural diversity of the US so clearly and closely before.

    The following days were even more impressive. We integrated(融入)into the forest of concrete and cement(混凝土和水泥). We waved to the Statue of Liberty; we looked down at the busy island of Manhattan; we looked at well-known universities—Harvard of ancient Egypt.

    Then we visited some well-known university—Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Columbia—each with its own appealing and time-honored history. But what all these universities have in common is their peaceful academic atmospheres witch you could feel everywhere. I was impressed by the libraries, decorated just like cathedrals(教堂), and the laboratories just next to the classroom. My dream is to return to those places as an international student.

    Finally came our destinations—the Model United Nations conference at the University of Chicago. Students from various countries arrived to act as United Nations delegations and share their opinions about global issues.

    As a non-native speaker, I felt that competing against native speakers was a very tough task. But it was also a rare change to improve my English and I couldn't throw it away. With perseverance and devotion. I got used to talking to other delegations naturally. Although I didn't win any awards, the chairman praised me at the closing ceremony for my excellent performance. That made me feel really proud.

    This trip brought me unforgettable and valuable experiences that will benefit me forever.

Many got sleepless nights after Sora amazed the world with its remarkable ability of creating videos directly from text instructions. Discussions about what the artificial intelligence model can do and make a difference continue.

Some said it could give a huge blow to traditional industries such as film and television making, looking forward to the day when a movie can be created right after a novel is put into the model. But others remain skeptical about how powerful the model can be in changing the landscape of AI application. 

Developed by a group of young talent from Microsoft-backed company OpenAI, the text-to-video model can generate videos up to a minute long while maintaining visual quality and adherence to the user's prompt.

Shen Yang, a professor at the School of Journalism and Communication, Tsinghua University , said, "Sora represents a revolutionary leap in the field of AI-generated content (AIGC)." 

As one of the leading scholars in AI research in China, Shen leads a team that studies the philosophy of AI. Until he learned about Sora on February 16, Shen was quite satisfied with his team's AI-generated videos. A two-minute video on the Spring Festival produced by Shen's team have recently won many likes on social media platforms. "Compared with the new model Sora, what we used are tools of the previous generation. There's a huge gap in between," said Shen.

As a frequent user of AI, Shen said the technology not only helps improve his productivity, but also benefits his daily life. His wife was suffering from cancer and many complications, and he used AI to assist in finding treatment, which has remarkably prolonged her life. He even wrote an award-winning science fiction novel using AI.

However, new technologies do not mean good news to everyone. Many also concern about AI models' safety issues since related regulations are lagging behind. 

Sora is going to bring changes in many fields, including short video, film and television, news, games, advertising, education, and even industrial manufacturing, according to Shen. There is still much room to improve AI models. For instance, current AI models are not capable of drawing characters accurately and quickly. Shop signs lack meaning in Sora's demo video showing a woman walking down a street in Tokyo. But these problems are believed to be solved as models update.

Students who are better able to understand and manage their emotions effectively, a skill known as emotional intelligence (EI), do better at school than their less-skilled classmates, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

"It's not enough to be smart and hardworking. Students must also be able to understand and manage their emotions to succeed at school," said Carolyn MacCann, lead author of the study. MacCann and her colleagues analyzed data from more than 160 studies, representing more than 42,000 students from 27 countries, published between 1998 and 2019. The students ranged in age from primary school to college. The researchers found that students with higher EI tended to get higher grades and better achievement test scores than those with lower EI scores. This finding held true even when controlling for intelligence and personality factors. What was most surprising to the researchers was the association held despite different ages.

As for why EI can affect academic performance, MacCann believes a number of factors may come into play. "Students with higher EI may be better able to manage negative emotions, such as anxiety, boredom and disappointment, which can negatively affect academic performance," she said. "Also, these students may be better able to manage the social world around them, forming better relationships with teachers, classmates and family, all of which are important to academic success." Finally, the skills required for EI, such as understanding human motivation and emotion, may overlap with （与……重叠） the skills required to master certain subjects, such as history and language, giving students an advantage in those subject areas, according to Mac Cann.

However, Mac Cann cautions against widespread testing of students to identify and target those with low EI as it may stigmatize （给……打上烙印） those students. Instead, she recommends interventions that involve the whole school, including additional teacher training and a focus on teacher well-being and emotional skills. "Programs that integrate emotional skill development into the existing curriculum would be beneficial, as research suggests that training works better when run by teachers rather than external professionals," she said. "Increasing skills for everyone not just those with low EI would benefit everyone."